From a dear friend and fellow memo reader:
===
By now, if you read my memos, you know I have a bizarre sense of humor and sometimes go a bit overboard. This is perhaps such a time. I have reworked The Sound of Music, as follows:.
Our nation is alive with the sound of Muslims
They gather in Mosques, 3 times each day,
to pray
While many of their Imams teach them to hate and destroy
Obama disregards their dangerous and sinister ploy
Yes, our nation is alive with the sound of Sharia
As the pop of their guns get louder and louder
Obama focuses on climate change and law and order
The president’s solution is to take our guns away
While imposing Hope and Change
Those in opposition think the man quite derangedYes, our nation is alive with the sound of Muslims
And Obama wants more to become citizens
Many do not understand why he pursues his radical plan
Since there are plenty of empty tents in Saudi Arabia, Iraq
and Iran
And we cannot properly vet them without allowing their ranks
to be filled by ISIS
But Republicans are called dirty names and receive no thanks
for protecting our
nation from this crisis
In addition, Obama is on another questionable mission
Which is to allow Iran to achieve nuclear fusion
This has left many Americans in a state of utter confusion
Some think Obama fell on his head and suffers a contusion
But have no fear., Hillarious is seeking to become president
Thus, returning “Ole” Bill to The White House as a resident.
And take comfort - no intern will be allowed to
dress in blue
So it is little wonder the hills are alive with those
who are clue - less
What is happening to our beautiful America?
Yes, we are told what difference should it make to me and
you. (See 1 and 1a below.)===
The Justice Department has become a conduit for laundering money to Liberal groups! Is that the purpose of our Justice Department? You decide. (See 2 below.)
====
From a long time friend and fellow memo reader:
"Dear Dick,
I loved the quote you provided from Lt. Col. Peters and found it clear, simple and refreshing. I may be a simple minded person and may err on the side of simplicity even on complex issues, but I believe once an issue is raised to the level of war the solution is simple as so accurately given by Lt. Col. Peters.
One of your ditto head followers,
S------"
My response:
"Nothing wrong with simplicity. A lot wrong with simpletons and we have far too many in high places. Me"
His response to mine: "Simplicity vs simpletons! Yes, Dick, you hit the nail on the head and made me laugh out loud. [Not "lol" the Internet's digital text for "laughing out loud", but actually laughing in the physical world.]"
===
This is the America I know and love. Can the Arab/Muslim culture embrace the beauty of this moment? Time will tell.
"Starting with a single cellist on the floor of the National Air and Space
Museum's "Milestones of Flight" gallery, and swelling to 120 musicians,
The U.S. Air Force Band exhilarated museum visitors with its first-ever flash
mob. The six-minute performance featured an original arrangement of
"Jesu,Joy of Man's Desiring/Joy to the World," led by the band's commander and
conductor, Col. Larry H. Lang.
Unsuspecting museum visitors including tourists and school groups were astonished as instrumentalists streamed into the gallery from behind airplanes and space capsules, and vocalists burst into song from the Museum's second floor balcony."
https://www.youtube.com/
and
This from a dear friend and fellow memo reader in response to my previous "Coke" posting and women in combat:
"I have to tell you, Dick, if that Coca Cola commercial doesn’t choke you up a bit, you are leaning toward the hard side. Really great!
Also, on the subject of the administration (read Ash Carter, no military experience and Barry O, no experience of any kind) ruling women are now eligible for all combat roles, I have a little “inside” info on the project.
Our grandson is a Marine Infantry Captain. He ran the Infantry section of the exhaustive test on females to be employed in ground combat. Lasted months fromCamp Lejeune,NC to the dessert in California. He certainly is not anti-female Marines – his wife is also a Marine Captain - but based on this study, and it was the only service which did an exhaustive, scientific analysis, Infantry, Ground Combat units should not admit females. As you note, the current Joint Chief, who was Marine Commandant at the time of the study, feels the same way..." (See 3 below.)
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It should be evident to all now, except Obama, the San Bernadino attack was carried out by radical terrorists. Over time, it should also become evident that the husband, by going to Saudi Arabia to find a bride, opened himself to radicalization.
The Saudi Royal Family is split when it comes to being our allies. There are those members of The Royal Family who know their bread is buttered by being aligned with America and they have every reason to fear Iran and distrust Obama. Then, there are those members of the Saudi Royal Family who are supporters of Wahhabism and align their interests with and continue funding radical Islamists.
This schism exists and is a threat not only to our own security but also to the survival of The House of Saud!
Lamentably, The FBI does not have the personnel to do the job required nor, even if they trained and hired more agents,could they stop all such tragic events.
The best we can hope for is a rational Republican will be elected president and we will declare war on ISIS and Islamic Terrorism. Again, the first order and sworn commitment of any president is to protect and defend our nation. Obama took the oath but did not incorporate it into his Hope and Change concept because his sympathies seem more aligned with the Muslim culture. America "the good" remains foreign to his thinking because he sees our nation and its history as the problem. Therefore, Obama is unable to characterize what is happening and when you cannot define the problem in words that have both meaning and clarity you cannot solve the problem.
Hillarious has shown no accomplishment(s) that gives me much comfort despite her contrary protestations. Her record as Secretary of State places her among the worst and can only be characterized as abysmal. By her own admission, she lied to the American people when she knew otherwise and nothing she touts ring clear as evidence she is qualified to be president beyond wearing a pant suit.
Once again, it is little wonder Trump leads because most Americans are not stupid and are far ahead of our pitiful leaders in concluding they are leading us in the wrong direction. Every day another incident, whether here or abroad, validates their legitimate concerns and Trump's brand of campaigning strikes a responsive chord. The fact that Trump is a loose cannon but an unattached one, though perversely, also brings comfort to those who are fed up with those with political ties and monied sources.
If one were to measure the Republican candidates according to their proven accomplishments and not their personalities, rhetoric or campaigning styles, JEB, Kasich, Christie would be far ahead but Americans are angry, they believe they have been under-served, lied to and have had enough of Obama's Hope and Change. At present they may be more emotional than logical and, because the early small States are not representative of the nation as a whole, we are receiving poll evidence that is skewed and may not be indicative. That is not to say Trump may not ultimately trump and become president but it does mean it is still too early to conclude he will continue with his commanding lead.
Time will tell and certainly more terrorists acts favor Trump over the other candidates but the campaign has more months to play out before we will know who will oppose Hillarious. Furthermore, even her own commanding lead can turn to dust should The FBI investigation conclude she has broken laws, which I believe she has, because others have done less and have paid heavy prices.
But then, I am not your regular Kool Aid drinker! I like to believe I am persuaded by evidence and less by what emits from the mouths of politicians seeking higher office. In the case of Hillarious, there is overwhelming evidence she is unqualified to heal the wounds caused by Obama divisive leadership style.
===
From a dear friend and fellow memo reader.
The problem is that we cannot cut our way to a healthy sustainable budget but it could be a welcomed start. The problem, of course, is vested interest bulls do not like being gored and will resist! (See 4 below.)
===
Kerry has a somewhat distorted view of the "plight" of Palestinians but then nothing he does or says surprises me because he, like his predecessor, it totally unqualified to be Sec. of State. But then that is why Obama chose him. He is a perfect foil for Obama and serves as his dependable lackey! (See 5 below.)
===
Dick
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1)
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| How much lower will America sink before it regains its senses? Wednesday, two Muslims walked into a Christmas party at a community service center in San Bernardino, California where one worked. They were wearing body armor and video cameras and carrying automatic rifles, pipe bombs and pistols. They opened fire, killed 14, and wounded 17. The murderers, Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik were killed by police. Speaking to the Daily News, Farook’s father said his son, “was very religious. He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He’s Muslim.” Farook’s neighbor told the paper that over the past two years, Farook exchanged his Western dress for Islamic gowns and grew a beard. These data points lead naturally to the conclusion that Farook and his wife were jihadists who killed in order to kill in the name of Islam. But in America of December 2015, natural conclusions are considered irresponsible, at best. In an interview with CNN following the shooting, US President Barack Obama said the massacre demonstrates that the US needs stricter gun laws. As for the motives of the shooters, Obama shrugged. “We don’t yet know the motives of the shooters,” he insisted. In other words, while ignoring what in all likelihood drove Farooq and his wife to murder innocent people, Obama laid responsibility for the carnage at the feet of his political opponents who reject his demands for stricter limitations on gun ownership. Here is the place to note that California has some of the most stringent gun control laws in the US. According to the victims, Farook and his partners were able to reload their weapons and shoot without interruption for several minutes until the police arrived because there was no one to stop them. Obama wasn’t alone in deflecting attention away from the likely motivations of the murderers. Wednesday evening, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), held a press conference at the Islamic Center of Orange County. Farook’s brother in law, Farhan Khan was carted out before the cameras to tell the world that he for one had no idea why his brother in law opened fire. Two other speakers at the event were Hussam Auyloush, CAIR’s regional executive director and Muzammil Siddiqi, the director of the Islamic Society of Orange County. Auyloush insisted that he had no idea would could have possibly prompted Farook and his wife to murder those gathered at the center. Auyloush raised the prospect that they could have been mentally ill, or perhaps they just didn’t like the victims, or maybe they were garden-variety extremists. For his part, Siddiqi insisted that Islam had nothing to do with the shooters’ decision to murder innocent people, (how he could be so certain, is unknown). Siddiqi added that he hopes law enforcement bodies will conduct a full investigation into the “people and motives,” behind the attack. To a degree, the very fact that Siddiqi had no compunction about stepping in front of the cameras just hours after the attack is proof that the US has lost its way. If American elites were even semi-competent, Siddiqi would have faded into the shadows, never to emerge again 15 years ago. Siddiqi is a known jihadist sympathizer. His close ties to jihadists have been a matter of public record since 2000. In October 2000, Siddiqi spoke at an anti-Israel rally in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. There he warned the American people that they must abandon their support for Israel lest “the wrath of God” be unleashed against them. According to a profile of Siddiqi compiled by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, (IPT) in the late 1990s Siddiqi gave a speech extolling jihad and foreseeing Israel’s replacement with an Islamic state. Among other things, Siddiqi said, “In order to gain the honor, jihad is the path, jihad is the way to receive the honor.” Siddiqi converted Osama bin Laden’s senior aide, American jihadist Adam Gadahn. Gadahn converted to Islam at the Islamic Center of Orange County in 1995. According to a 2007 New Yorker profile, Siddiqi employed Gadahn at the Center in the years following his conversion. It was during this period that Gadahn was radicalized. He then went to Pakistan and joined al Qaida. In 1992 Siddiqi hosted a blind sheikh named Omar Abdel Rahman at the Islamic Center. He stood beside Rahman and simultaneously translated his lecture about jihad to the audience of worshipers. The next year, Rahman masterminded the first jihadist attack on the World Trade Center. During the 1990s, Siddiqi served as the president of the Islamic Society of North America, a known Muslim Brotherhood front group. In 2007, ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holyland terror financing trial. Despite all of his connections to jihadists, US authorities insist that Siddiqi is a legitimate voice. In 2007 Stephen Tidwell, then assistant director of the FBI division in Los Angeles upheld Siddiqi as a moderate. Speaking to the IPT, Tidwell said, “We have a very strong relationship with Dr. Siddiqi.” Hours before Obama responded to the San Bernadino massacre by lashing out at gun control opponents, Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for US Operation Inherent Resolve – the US campaign against Islamic State – rejected Russian claims that the Turkish government is collaborating with the terror state. Warren praised the Turks as “great partners to us.” “We flatly reject any notion that the Turks are somehow working with Islamic State. That is preposterous,” he insisted, adding, “Any thought” the Turkish government would deal or collaborate with Islamic State is “completely untrue.” Unfortunately, a wealth of evidence indicates that it is Warren’s statement that is preposterous and completely untrue. For nearly five years, it has been an open secret that Turkey serves as Islamic State’s logistical base. Almost all the foreigners traveling to Syria to join IS transit through Turkey. For nearly two years, we have known that Turkey is Islamic State’s major arms supplier. And for six months we have known that they are their partners in oil exports. In an article published this past summer in Middle East Quarterly, Burak Bekdil reported in January 2014, Turkish prosecutors acting independently from the government, dispatched forces to a border province with Syria to intercept a convoy of trucks laden with missiles, rockets and ammunition making its way to Syria. One of the truck drivers testified at the time that he and his colleagues had “carried similar loads several times before.” The forces charged with seizing the cargo were shocked to discover the trucks were being escorted by Turkish intelligence officers. According to Bekdil, “all hell broke loose,” after the prosecutors ordered the men arrested and the cargo seized. The provincial governor swooped in and insisted that the convoy was traveling on direct orders from Turkish leader Recep Tayip Erdogan. Months later, the military took over the case. And today, the men who executed the arrests and cargo seizure are on trial for “international espionage.” Bekdil reported that two months after the cargo was intercepted, a meeting took place between then foreign minister and current Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, his deputy, Feridun Sinirlioglu, the head of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan and deputy chief of the Turkish general staff, Gen. Yasar Guler. A recording of the meeting was leaked to social media. In the recording, Fidan is heard saying that “he had successfully sent two thousand trucks into Syria before.” As to Islamic State oil sales to Turkey, this past May, US special forces executed their first known raid inside Syria. The commandos descended on the home of Islamic State’s financial chief Abu Sayyaf. US forces killed Sayyaf and seized his computers and hard drives. Sayyaf directed Islamic State’s oil, gas and financial operations. Last July the Guardian reported that the computer data revealed close, direct dealings between Turkish officials and Islamic State members. According to one senior Western official familiar with the contents of the documents, just from what had been uncovered in the initial study of the material, “the links [between Islamic State and the Turkish government] are already so clear that they could end up having profound policy implications for the relationship between us and Ankara.” Yet Wednesday, in the face of an overwhelming mountain of evidence, the Americans rejected out-of-hand Russians allegations that Turkey is the main consumer of oil exports from Islamic State. This past July, two senior Defense Intelligence Agency analysts assigned to US Central Command submitted a formal complaint to the Defense Department’s inspector general. The two claimed that their intelligence reports on Islamic State were doctored and distorted as they made their way up the feeding chain to Obama. Fifty intelligence analysts have stated their agreement with the allegations in the complaint. The doctored reports systematically rendered portraits of the US campaign against Islamic State as successful and Islamic State as a nearly spent force, along the lines of the narrative presented by Obama and his advisors. According to the analysts, the picture painted by the doctored reports bore little resemblance to their far more negative conclusions. According to the Daily Beast’s report, intelligence analysts began complaining to their superiors about the distortion of their reports in October 2014. Some of those analysts were urged to retire early, and some did. According to the publication, “one person who knows the contents of the written complaint… said it used the word ‘Stalinist’ to describe the tone set by officials overseeing CENTCOM analysis.” Following the jihadist attacks on Paris on November 13, Obama maintained his insistence that climate change is a graver threat to US national security than terrorism. It could be that this prioritization of concerns is playing a role in the administration’s apparent determination not to seriously fight Islamic State. In an interview with Charlie Rose last month, former CIA director Michael Morell explained that the administration decided not to bomb Islamic State’s oil infrastructure “because we didn’t want to do environmental damage.” According to the Guardian, Islamic State makes between one to four million dollars per day from oil sales. Perhaps the shooters in San Bernadino were just mad at their boss. Maybe Farooq suffered from clinical depression or ADD, or PTSD, or something. And maybe Islamic State, with its new colony Sirte in “liberated” Libya, just 400 miles from Italy, is on the run. Maybe as well, Turkey is just a patsy and Russia is really Islamic State’s largest trading partner, or maybe Israel is, or Ireland. But if facts are to be taken seriously, then the fact is that in December 2015, the US is acting with pathological devotion to ideological narratives that bear no relationship to reality. 1a) Obama Names Hamas Sympathizer as New ISIS Czar 
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica
Mogherini, right, speaks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, and U.S. Robert Malley, left, Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf States, National Security Council during a break outside the hotel at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel as the Iran nuclear talks continue, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Keystone,Laurent Gillieron)
President Obama has appointed a foreign policy advisor known to be a friend of the terrorist group Hamas to be the administration’s new czar in charge of countering ISIS. The appointee, Robert Malley, has a history of sympathizing with Islamists, which makes the appointment all the more appalling.
According to the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, the White House downplayed the controversial appointment by "burying it deep in a press briefingdelivered at a Paris hotel during the recent climate summit."
The President recently elevated Rob Malley, the NSC [National Security Council] Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, to serve now as the Senior Advisor to the President for the Counter-ISIL Campaign in Iraq and Syria,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during the briefing at the Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel and Conference Center. Before moving onto the next topic Earnest said the president has directed Malley to “support our reinvigorated diplomatic track toward a political transition in Syria…
Obama raised eyebrows last year when he made Malley the senior director at the National Security Council, but according to the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat, he never really left Obama’s circle.
Al-Hayat reported that Hamas engaged in talks with Obama for months through Malley, which among other things resulted in their receiving almost a billion of your tax dollars from President Obama.
Indeed, as Judicial Watch reports, "Malley published a piece in a mainstream newspaper declaring that Israel was responsible for the failure of Bill Clinton’s peace talks with the Palestinians."
Malley was Obama's informal foreign policy adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign until his cozy relationship with Hamas, long classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, came to light. Israeli security officials had expressed “concern” about Malley for advocating negotiations with Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group. This came amid reportage that Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama's radical church in Chicago, had reprinted a manifesto by Hamas in its newsletter. The manifesto defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist, and compared the terror group’s official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America’s Declaration of Independence.
Fearful of losing Jewish voters, Obama severed ties with Malley in May of 2008 when it was disclosed that he had held meetings with Hamas. The campaign had been telling pro-Israel audiences that Obama would not talk with Hamas unless and until it had renounced terror, recognized Israel, and abided by previous agreements the Palestinians had signed with Israel.
One day after the election, it was reported that Malley had been dispatched to the Middle East to work on Obama's promise to "improve ties with Egypt and Syria."
That all worked out so well, he's been promoted to Obama's ISIS czar.
|
2) Justice’s Liberal Slush Fund
Legal settlements are being used to funnel millions to left-wing activists like La Raza.
PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republicans talk often about using the “power of the purse” to rein in a lawless Obamaadministration. If they mean it, they ought to use their year-end spending bill to stop a textbook case of outrageous executive overreach.
This scandal comes courtesy of the Justice Department, which for 16 months has engaged in a scheme to undermine Congress’s spending authority by independently transferring dollars to President Obama’s political allies. The department is in the process of funneling more than half-a-billion dollars to liberal activist groups, at least some of which will actively support Democrats in the coming election.
It works likes this: The Justice Department prosecutes cases against supposed corporate bad actors. Those companies agree to settlements that include financial penalties. Then Justice mandates that at least some of that penalty money be paid in the form of “donations” to nonprofits that supposedly aid consumers and bolster neighborhoods.
The Justice Department maintains a list of government-approved nonprofit beneficiaries. And surprise, surprise: Many of them are liberal activist groups. The National Council of La Raza. The National Urban League. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition. NeighborWorks America (which awards grants to left-leaning community organization groups, and has been compared with Acorn).
This strategy kicked off with the $13 billion J.P. Morgan settlement in late 2013, though in that case the bank was simply offered credit for donations to nonprofits. That changed with the Citigroup and Bank of America settlements, which outright required $150 million in donations. The BofA agreement contains a provision that potentially tees up nonprofit groups for another $490 million. Several smaller settlements follow the same mold.
To further induce companies to go the donation route, Justice considers these handouts to be worth “double credit” against penalty obligations. So while direct forms of victim relief are still counted dollar-for-dollar, a $500,000 donation by BofA to La Raza takes at least $1 million off the company’s bill.
The purpose of financial penalties is to punish, and to provide restitution to real victims. The Justice Department would make the case that this money is flowing to groups that aid the targets of supposed banking abuse, such as homeowners. But that assumes the work these groups do is targeted at actual victims—which it isn’t. It assumes that the work these groups do in housing is nonpartisan—which it isn’t. And it ignores that money is fungible. Every dollar banks donate to the housing arms of the Urban League or La Raza is a dollar those groups can free up to wage an assault on voter ID laws, or to help out Democrats.
This is the Obama administration riding roughshod over the most basic of congressional powers—those of spending and oversight. Adding to the insult, Justice is routing money back to programs that congressional Republicans deliberately stripped of funds. In 2011 Republicans eliminated the Housing Department’s $88 million for “housing counseling” programs, which spread around money to groups like La Raza. Congress subsequently restored only $45 million, and has maintained that level. These bank settlements pour some $30 million into housing counseling groups, thereby essentially restoring all the funding.
It’s also a classic Obama end run around the law. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who has spent a year investigating and pushing back against Justice’s slush fund, has noted that the Miscellaneous Receipts Act requires money received by the government from any source to be deposited in the Treasury. Directing banks to give money to third parties is a slippery way of evading that statute.
He’s also noted that Justice’s own internal guidelines discourage donations to third parties, precisely because of the risk it “can create actual or perceived conflicts of interest and/or other ethical issues.” No kidding. Mr. Goodlatte has discovered that some of the activist groups that stood to benefit from these transfers were involved in getting the requirements put into the settlements. He’s called on Justice to end the practice, and the department’s response has been to double down.
Which is why Mr. Goodlatte crafted a one-sentence amendment to the annual appropriations bill for Justice, one that strips the department of money if it continues with its slush-fund ruse. His amendment passed easily on a voice vote this summer.
Yet Justice has aggressive Democratic defenders in the Senate, who strongly oppose including the provision in the final, year-end omnibus. And some Senate Republicans seem willing to oblige them. Which is nuts.
The GOP is currently wrangling with Democrats over which policy riders to include in that final bill, and that’s well and good. But the Goodlatte amendment is so germane as to be obvious. It goes to the heart of the question at hand—spending—and to Congress’s right to control the national purse. If Republicans are interested in containing a president who routinely ignores the rules, here’s a place to stand.
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3)
Read to the end.
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
* Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon , eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
* U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
*Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings..
* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings..
* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
*Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
* U.S.Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
*Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
*Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
*Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT???
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
*Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings. WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
*Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..
* HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
*TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
My question is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place?!
Maybe this is why the Democrats are attacking Paul Ryan.
3)
As Obama ORDERS women in combat, look what we discovered about female Army Rangers
Remember that infamous statement by then-Senator Barack Obama, “we are five says away from fundamentally transforming America?” Everyone let out a frenzied cheer — well, now we’re witnessing what that transformation entails.
For example, the response for the heinous Paris Islamic terrorist attack was a conference on climate change, which Obama believed would send a rebuke to terrorists. And now, we have another Islamic terrorist attack in America, in San Bernardino, and the response is all about gun control.
Obama stated yesterday, “we’ll make it harder for individuals to access weapons” — question, which individuals? There seems to be a fantasy world in which President Obama resides that has little to nothing to do with truth and reality. And so it continued yesterday with this little tidbit about our military.
As reported by Fox News, “Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday ordered the military to open all combat jobs to women, rebuffing requests by the Marine Corps to exclude women from certain front-line combat jobs.
Declaring that “we are a joint force,” Carter said that while moving women into these jobs will present challenges, the military can no longer afford to exclude half of the population from grueling military jobs. He said that any man or woman who meets the standards should be able to serve, and he gave the armed services 30 days to submit plans to make the historic change.
Carter’s order opens the final 10 percent of military positions to women, and allows them to serve in the military’s most demanding and difficult jobs, including as special operations forces, such as the Army Delta units and Navy SEALs.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Joseph Dunford, former Marine Corps commandant, had argued that the Marines should be allowed to keep women out of certain front-line combat jobs, citing studies showing that mixed-gender units aren’t as capable as all-male units. Carter said he came to a different conclusion, but he said the integration of women into the combat jobs will be deliberate and methodical and will address the Marine Corps concerns.
Dunford did not attend the news conference to announce the change, and when asked about that absence, Carter said he has discussed his decision multiple times with the chairman.”
So let me get this straight. A nuclear physicist who has never served in the military has just “ordered” that combat billets (duty positions) be opened up to women. This is yet another example of the intransigent ideological agenda of progressive socialism as embodied by one Barack Obama.
He exhibited no passion when discussing the horrific Islamic terror attack in San Bernadino — perhaps it was just a “setback.” However, if you bring up the subject of climate change, or social egalitarianism, Obama will show an unrighteous indignation. And for Secretary of Defense Carter to order that our Armed Forces have 30 days to submit plans? How about Carter and Obama take 30 days to develop a coherent strategy to defeat Islamic jihadism?
Therefore, we see what the focus is for the Obama administration. It is not about fighting the enemy. It is not about protecting Americans. The Obama agenda is all about a very demented sense of “fairness.”
I have been in combat and there is nothing fair about going mano a mano with someone who wants to kill you. Right now I am re-reading the book “13 Hours” and when you read the account of these “operators”, you come to realize this is not about fairness and the inane liberal progressive ideal of the “participation trophy.”
Consider the visual depictions of “Lone Survivor,” “Black Hawk Down,” and “American Sniper.” These films depicted the 21st century battlefield against Islamic jihadists. There is a huge difference between being in a combat zone and being in close quarters combat. Women have been on the battlefield since Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, the famed “Molly Pitcher” at the Battle of Monmouth. Today we have women serving in fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and in ground support roles that place them in harm’s way because the battlefield is no longer linear.
But for SecDef Carter to make this declaration — which we all know came from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — just proves an administration hell bent on transformation even when it displays a complete idiocy. They don’t know if the attack in San Bernardino was an Islamic terror attack, but they sure as Shinola know women should be in all positions in the military.
Now of course, the liberal progressive detractors are going to point to the recent graduation of females from Army Ranger school, but folks, there’s a difference in finishing a 60-day intense leadership school and doing ground combat operations for an extended time — and not with blanks.
However, I would like to shine a light on some issues down in Ft. Benning regarding that Ranger School class with the female students. Here’s a report from U.S. Defense Watch you’ll find interesting.
You can read the entire piece here. SecDef Carter stated that any man or woman who meets the standards…but in the case of these three female Ranger school graduates, we have no records of such. And is this how the most transparent administration in history is supposed to gain our trust?
Chairmen Mac Thornberry and John McCain of the House and Senate Armed Services Committee must send a letter to President Obama and SecDef Carter and simply tell them, you ain’t getting one penny of taxpayer dollars until the Ranger school records of the three females are produced. As a matter of fact, you’re not getting any funding until there’s a full hearing held before both committees. We can ill afford radical ideological agendas to dictate our national security strategy.
And it was very telling that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dunford, a decorated U.S. Marine Infantryman, was not standing with the SecDef when he made this declaration. That speaks volumes, and hat tip to General Dunford for taking that stand. I can tell you one thing, if I ever grace the Pentagon halls as SecDef, this will not stand — and I am not a nuclear physicist, just a combat arms career officer
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4)These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting.
Read to the end.
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
* Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon , eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
* U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
*Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings..
* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings..
* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
*Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
* U.S.Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
*Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
*Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
*Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT???
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
*Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings. WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
*Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..
* HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
*TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
My question is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place?!
Maybe this is why the Democrats are attacking Paul Ryan.
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5)
John Kerry Spins a Fantasy About the Palestinians
Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertion that the Palestinian Arabs are in a “very dire situation” is not only absurd, but also very revealing — about the fantasies that guide the Obama Administration’s Middle East policy.
After emerging from a meeting with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas on November 24, Kerry declared: “I know that the situation for Palestinians in the West Bank, in Jerusalem, in Gaza is, at this moment, very dire, that there are extraordinary concerns, obviously, about the violence.”
“Dire”? Is he kidding or just ill-informed? When was the last time Secretary Kerry read his briefings on even the most basic information about conditions among the Palestinians?
Here’s some helpful information for him.
Life Expectancy: In Judea-Samaria, the average life expectancy of a Palestinian man is 73.6 years, for a woman it’s 77.9 years. That’s higher than Brazil, Turkey, and Russia, to name a few.
Literacy: Two years ago, the PA’s own Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics announced that Palestinian Arabs now have one of the lowest rates of illiteracy in the world, just 1.8% among men and 6.4% among women.
Infant Mortality: The infant mortality rate among Palestinians in Judea-Samaria –according to the CIA’s World Factbook — is currently just 13.08. That’s lower than Venezuela, Peru, and the Philippines. There are 114 (out of 224) countries on the list with higher mortality rates than that of the Palestinians.
Poverty: According to the CIA, 18.3% of Palestinians in Judea-Samaria live below the poverty line. That figure was 60% as recently as 2002. Among the countries that currently have a higher percentage than the Palestinians of people below the poverty line: Spain (21%) Romania (22%), Bulgaria (22%) — and Israel, at 21%.
That’s right: there are more Israelis than Palestinians living below the poverty line, according to the CIA. The Israeli social policy group “Latet” reported last year that the the Israeli poverty rate is 31.6%. The Israeli government’s National Insurance institute, which measures poverty differently, calculates that 18.6% of Israelis are below the poverty line –but even that figure is still higher than that of the Palestinians.
Likewise, from a political point of view, how can any reasonable person think that the Palestinians are in a “dire” situation? More than 98% of them live under the Palestinian Authority, not Israel. They have complete self-rule. They manage their own educational, social, economic, and political affairs. The only thing that a sovereign state has — and that the Palestinians don’t have — are a military, tanks, and fighter jets. That’s “dire”?
Perhaps most troubling is the policy position that Secretary Kerry and the Obama Administration are promoting, based on this fantasy about the Palestinians’ dire straits. Kerry told reporters in Ramallah that he had come to the Middle East “at the request of President Obama” in order to “restore people’s confidence in the ability of a two-state solution to still be viable…”
Obama didn’t send him to demand that the Palestinian Authority stop encouraging young Arabs to stab, shoot, and ram Jews with their cars. Obama didn’t send him to help our ally Israel protect itself against the stabbers and snipers and rammers.
No, Obama sent Kerry to rescue the goal of giving the stabbers and snipers a fully sovereign state. To “restore people’s confidence” in the viability of “a two-state solution.” For Obama and Kerry, morality doesn’t matter. No matter how many Palestinians murder Jews, and no matter how much the Palestinian Authority leadership encourages and incites those murders, they must be given a state.
Because, after all, the healthy, well-fed, and well-educated Palestinians who already have self-rule are in such “dire” conditions.
